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Juan González

Co-Host of Democracy Now! and New York Daily News Columnist

Juan González has been a professional journalist for nearly 35 years and a staff columnist at the New York Daily News since 1987. In 1998 and 2010, he received the George Polk Award for commentary. He was the first reporter in New York City to expose the health effects arising from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and government officials’ cover-up of these hazards.

He is a founder and past president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and a member of NAHJ’s Hall of Fame. During his term as NAHJ president, González created the Parity Project, an innovative program that creates partnerships between local communities and media organizations to improve coverage of the Latino community and to recruit and retain more Hispanic journalists. He also spearheaded a successful movement among U.S. journalists to join other citizen groups in opposing the Federal Communications Commission’s deregulation of media ownership limits.

A founding member of the Young Lords Party in the 1970s and the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights in the 1980s, Gonzalez has twice been named by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the country’s most influential Hispanics. He has received lifetime achievement awards from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the National Council of La Raza and the National Puerto Rican Coalition.

González has written four books; his most popular work, Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, is now required reading in nearly 200 U.S. colleges. Onyx Films released a critically acclaimed documentary based on the book and narrated by González in late 2012.

His most recent book, News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media, co-authored with Free Press’ Joseph Torres, is a landmark narrative history of American media that puts race at the center of the story. Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse documents attempts by the Environmental Protection Agency and government officials to cover up health hazards at Ground Zero in New York. Roll Down Your Window: Stories of a Forgotten America is a collection of the best columns González wrote for the New York Daily News during the 1980s and 1990s.

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